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RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 

 1)Y ONE OF NO PAUTY.* 



Among the host of new publications that have been flung upon the 

 town since " the season," as it is called by the gcnllemeii of Paternoster 

 Row and Albermarle Street, commenced; no one "volume" has made 

 so o-rcat an uproar among the disinterested Commons, as the woi'k wc 

 have taken up for the purpose of transferring to our pages some valuable 

 and entertaining matter. The author remains incognita. There is some- 

 thin"- in that — so the honourable member for Westminster has been 

 heard to say. Whomsoever he may be however, his book is not only a 

 smart essay, but an useful and entertaining companion for Lords as well 

 as Commoners. Lideed, we have heard it said that a second edition . 

 is actualy in the press ; this, too, within the space of six weeks ! Who 

 shall say that book-writing is any thing but a money-making as well as 

 fame-creating procedure, after this so flattering instance of \inknown 

 authorship. To the work, however, which we perceive almost all the 

 periodicals besides our own, have already reviewed, as the publication 

 richlv deserves, in a handsome manner ; so much so, indeed, that we 

 can find no new comphment to pay the " great unknown," whoever he 

 may happen to be. 



To those who have not visited the Commons House of Parliament, and 

 have not witnessed the whole course of "parliamentary proceedings," 

 from the first to the last day of the session, the striking and truly graphic 

 representations which are so well drawn by the dextrous hand of the pen- 

 and-ink artist, will be of the first interest. We have delineated in this work 



from the life, as we say in the studio — the young fellow of 22, fresh 



from his introductory borough, and big with the fate of Hume and Smol- 

 lett — no, not Smollett, — Roebuck: Stanley, and Graham — Fancourt, and 

 Scarlett (the blushing members for Stanbury's borough of integ- 

 rity' and principle,) and all the gallant and fighting host of them, first 

 entering upon their new "process verbal" with all the apparent alacrity 

 of half-educated schoolboys, up to the sedate, gentlemanlike, and classic 

 senator, whose very manner and style of entering the house convey 

 to the beholder a fine idea of parliamentary pride and senatorial au- 

 thoritativeness. It must be conceded, that the House of Commons, as it 

 is now constituted, comprises a greater number of men of business than 

 at any former period. It is quite rational to infer, that, among 640 mem- 

 bers, some heavy and untalented men would be numbered. But even 

 this evil, if it be one, we would hold to be a benefit. There are, (thank 

 heaven!) some sensible men found, who seldom say a word beyond "yes" 

 and " no :" or, " I want so and so 1" and " will yougrant me so and so V 

 — such is the mercantile prose-poetry of every-day parliamentary and 

 business life. 



* Sniitli, Elder, and Co. Cornbill. 



